Knife Crime (458_17)

Request

Please may I have the answers to the following questions about under 18s caught with knives, drugs and knife crime generally. It may be that knives are recorded as a bladed article, or pointed weapon in your systems so if its necessary to make that distinction in order to answer my question then please do so.

1.How many under 18s have been caught carrying a knife in 2015-16 and in so far in January this year? (please give these two figures as separate tallys.)

2.How many under 18s have been caught carrying a knife on school premises in 2015-16 and so far in January this year?

Please give the exact age for each person under the age of 18 who was caught carrying a knife in 2015-16 and so far in January this year?

What was the outcome for each of those under 18s caught carrying a knife?

How many under-18s have been caught in possession of class A drugs in 2015-16 and in so far in January this year? Please give the exact age of each person.

Will you give me the data on knife crime for the force area – with regards to attacks with knives (specifying fatal / non-fatal and type of knife e.g. machete/military/kitchen/ zombie) for 2015-16 and in so far in January this year?

Response

Under section 21 of the Act, we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible to you. The information for 2015/16 is available on the following website.

Please note that these data should be interpreted with caution. Comparing numbers of incidents/crimes can be misleading and does not necessarily indicate the likelihood of someone being a victim of crime. In addition, the number of incidents/crimes recorded in an area over a period of time can be influenced by a number of factors. Consequently statistics on incidents/crimes for one period may not necessarily be a good indicator of future incidents in that area.

Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from a number of data sources used by forces for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when interpreting those data.

The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be taken into account when those data are used.